Christian Briggs is working on a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction and Complex Systems at the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing, where he occasionally teaches courses in new media theory. His research focuses primarily on how people get things done together using digital technology. Christian co-founded SociaLens.com in 2009 to provide research, training and consulting to help people and organizations to thrive in the digital age. In 2012, Christian co-wrote the book Digital Fluency: Building Success in the Digital Age, and his dissertation research explores the use of institutional analysis as a way to understand the role that social computing plays in organizations.

Dr. Kevin Crowley is a professor of Learning Sciences and Policy at the University of Pittsburgh, where he is also Director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE). UPCLOSE works in partnership with museums, community organizations, and media producers to develop innovative learning environments. Crowley’s group conducts basic learning sciences research in informal settings and develops new theories of how people learn about science, technology, engineering, and art. In addition, Crowley co-directs the NSF-funded Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE), co-directs the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation funded Science Learning Activation Lab, and is currently a W.T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellow for Research and Practice at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Crowley has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in psychology from Swarthmore College.

Elyse Eidman-Aadahl directs National Programs and Site Development for the National Writing Project (NWP), a network of nearly 200 literacy-focused professional development and research centers located at universities across all 50 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Based at the University of California-Berkeley, Eidman-Aadahl designs and leads nationally-networked learning and research initiatives for educators working in K-12, university, and out-of-school settings. She is the Founder, along with Christina Cantrill, of NWP’s Digital Is and Director of the Educator Innovator initiative. Formerly a high school English and journalism teacher, university professor, and evaluation consultant, Eidman-Aadahl specializes in professional development for literacy education in a digital age. She has worked with numerous organizations focused on literacy learning, youth development and civic engagement as they work to create and assess powerful learning contexts for young people and the adults who work with them. With a Ph.D. in curriculum theory from the University of Maryland College Park, Eidman-Aadahl is well-known for co-authoring Because Digital Writing Matters (Jossey-Bass, 2010) and Writing for a Change: Boosting Literacy and Learning through Social Action (Jossey-Bass, 2008).

Dr. Ingrid Erickson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University’s School of Communication & Information. Ingrid’s scholarly interests lie at the intersection of information technology, organizational behavior, and innovation. She received her Ph.D. from the Center for Work, Technology & Organization in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University in 2009, where she investigated the use of locative technology for mobile communication and organizing. After Stanford, Ingrid spent two years as a Research Fellow at the Social Science Research Council in Brooklyn, where she co-led a multi-million dollar project funded by the MacArthur Foundation to establish a learning network among cultural organizations in New York City. That project has developed into the Hive Learning Network NYC, which is now administered by the Mozilla Foundation (http://explorecreateshare.org/).

Ingrid has an M.S. in Information from the School of Information at University of Michigan. She also holds two degrees in religious studies—one from her alma mater, Carleton College, in Northfield, MN and the other from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. She has also conducted research with the Social Computing Group at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center and at Boeing’s Phantom Works research division.

Louis Gomez holds the MacArthur Chair in Digital Media and Learning in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California Los Angeles. Gomez has served since 2008 as a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he leads the Network Initiation and Development effort. Beginning in 2009, he held the Helen S. Faison Chair in Urban Education at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was also director of the Center for Urban Education and a senior scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center. From 2001 to 2008, he held a number of faculty appointments at Northwestern University, including the Aon Chair in the Learning Sciences at the School of Education and Social Policy. Prior to joining academia, he spent 14 years working in cognitive science and person–computer systems and interactions at Bell Laboratories, Bell Communications Research Inc. and Bellcore. His research interests have encompassed the application of computing and networking technology to teaching and learning, applied cognitive science, human–computer interactions and other areas. Gomez received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1974 and a doctorate in cognitive psychology from UC Berkeley in 1979.

Dr. Mary L. Gray is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research New England and an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Culture, with adjunct positions in American Studies, Anthropology, and Gender Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research looks at how everyday uses of media shape people’s understandings and expressions of their social identities. She is the author of In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth (1999). Her most recent book, Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America (NYU Press) examines how young people in rural parts of the United States fashion queer senses of gender and sexual identity and the role that media–particularly the internet–play in their lives and political work.

Dr. Erica Halverson is an Associate Professor of Digital Media and Literacy in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Erica works at the intersection of the arts and the learning sciences by studying how people learn in and through the arts. Erica has worked across artistic disciplines examining how young people learn to make art about the stories of their lives and has found that art-making supports positive identity development and competence with representations across a variety of media. Currently, Erica is supported by the National Science Foundation to study and design makerspace experiences for young people and families. Erica is the recipient of the 2010 Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies and she is the author of many articles on the generative impacts of the arts on youth.

For nearly 20 years, Meghan McDermott has been a key supporter of young people’s positive development through media, technology, and the arts. After her tenure as a researcher with the EDC Center for Children & Technology, Meghan led Global Action Project (GAP), an award-winning youth media arts organization from 2003-2013, leading implementation of its social change mission and strengthening G.A.P.’s position as a national leader in the field of youth media. She has served as an advisor for the Youth Media Learning Network, the Youth Media Reporter, as well as joined grant-making panels for NYSCA, the Smithsonian, and the NEA. She was a founding member of the Urban Visionaries Youth Film Festival and the NYC Critical Literacy Study Group for youth media practitioners in New York. Meghan received her masters in education from Harvard and has continued to develop her leadership through participation in NAMAC’s Media Arts Leadership Institute, Columbia University’s Institute for Non-Profit Management, the Rockwood Leadership Institute, and most recently as a Coro Fellow.